“Agreed,” I said. My heart swelled. I could never have hoped for such a contract, such a link. Such a price!
A candle near her guttered, flared, and went out. She moved her eyes slowly from it back to me and said, “Of course, I will say so, too. Are you able to keep a secret?”
“Like the night keeps the dark,” I said. I smiled at her and gave her my fullest attention, even though as I turned I saw Cullah approaching. His face lit with excitement as he raised a hand to wave at me, but I felt it was vital at that moment not to lose her eyes’ hold on my own. “Can you get me a better price on the silk embroidery hanks than I have been paying at the general mercantile? A merchant’s discount, perhaps?”
Johanna waved to someone across the room, while saying, “Of course.”
“With a penny’s profit or so for yourself.”
She turned to me again. “Of course,” she repeated, and this time laughed openly. “You are young to have such a mind. We shall enjoy doing business together, my dear Resolute.”
“I agree, Johanna. Now I must see what my beloved has to say to me, for he is trying hard to get my attention.”
Mistress Parmenter moved with the grace of a swan through the room and seated herself next to an elderly blind woman. I smiled at Cullah, for he was as animated as a child with a candy. “Is Lady Spencer to announce us to the crowd?”
“No, it’s not that. She said better to post banns in the usual way, for to announce us would not suit her son and his wife. She wishes us the most happiness, however. All that. But Resolute, no, Miss Talbot, oh, Miss Talbot, I must tell you. I have found him. I have him.”
“You found whom? Is Jacob here?”
“No. Please, ask me no more questions. I am struck dumb. He is here.” Cullah turned to someone behind him, a man tall enough that his hair showed above Cullah’s head, yet his face was unseen. His form was more slender than Cullah’s broad shoulders. The man was dressed in lavishly expensive and comely attire, yet with not the Williamsburg delicacy of Wallace. His clothes were a daring style from some faraway place: heavy blue brocade and cream color set off with a dashing maroon sash, under which he carried a short-sword. His face was bronzed, his eyes creased from too much sun, and he had a narrow, white scar from his hairline to just under his left eye. His visage carried an air of worldliness that set his features with age that seemed far beyond the youth in his dancing blue eyes.
The man turned his head one way, then another, eyeing me with gaiety and pleasure. Though it was not displeasing, it was uncommonly difficult to bear without turning away. He smiled broadly. At that second, he began to speak, and I saw he had a dimple on one cheek. “Resolute?” he asked.
My soul burst with the word as tears flew from my eyes and I cried out, “August!”
My brother swept me in his arms with no more care for decorum than the pirate he might be. No matter. No matter. I cared not the least. Here at last, my own brother, August Talbot, whole and hale and swinging me and my hoop skirts as if I were a bell tolling the return of a sailor long lost at sea. I cried out with joy. I held him with ferocity. When he put me down, all eyes were upon us.
I turned meekly to Lady Spencer, aware that I might lose her friendship by this odd display of bad manners, but the look on her face was one of triumph and a secret plan fulfilled. She held a glass of champagne in the air and said softly, “Here, here.”
The cry was picked up by people all around the room. Applause and laughter filled the hall, and the story of our separation spread about the room with plenty of ornamentation by the time we heard it. I held August’s arm tightly in both hands. He was lean and lithe and whole and alive. Gold chain glistened across his chest; he wore gold shoe buckles. I held his shoulder and shook my head. “I can hardly believe it is you.”
“And I, you,” he said. “Oh, it has been seven years too long.”
“But you live, as I do.”
“And what of Patience?” he asked softly.
“I know not where she is or if she lives. She left me on the path to Lexington.”
“And you waited for me all this time? Your note was brought to me.”
“I will have to tell you the whole tale, August. It is not a simple one. But what of you? How have you fared?”
“Excellently, once I overcame a certain obstacle. Uncle Rafe was—”
“A fiend. And are you still going to sea? Have you a house here?”
“I have two ships, my girl. No house.”
“You must stay with me, then.”
“I have quarters in town.”
“But I have a house.”
“A house? All your own? Well and aye, my girl. I should have known you would find a way to thrive. And a husband?”